Being one of Oprah’s Favorite Things is a hard act to follow. But Melissa is up to the challenge. Wood is a graduate of Cornell College in Iowa, where she majored in English Lit, Art & History. Having zero career trajectory in mind, she took courses that made her happy. She did not explain this system …

One college summer, my friend and I ran our own catering business. We spent days lying by the pool, and the evenings cooking marvelous dishes, lugging them to nearby fancy parties, passing hors d’oeuvres and doing dishes. It was an amazing enterprise, netting us fantastic tans & big fat savings accounts. Summer ended, and it …